Operation:Scare Nozomi
by AShiba1nu
Summary: Nozomi always seems fearless, doesn't she? The Muses attempt to find out if she really is.
1. Introduction

On one of the afternoons after Honoka had become the student council president, our ever dependable three third-years found themselves sitting in their clubroom with nothing to do. Because, well, they were the only ones who could attend the previously planned meeting, and everyone else had convenient emergencies resulting in the meeting being cancelled.

To prevent herself from dying out of boredom, Nico took the candid photos taken at a haunted house during their Halloween night gathering and began flipping through them.

Having sensed the sudden movement, Nozomi stopped nodding off and instead leaned over to peek at the printed photos.

"Aww… Muse looks cute when they're scared!" She drawled, pointing at the pictures. A shiver ran up both Nico and Eli's backs. Nico swore she saw Eli tense up from across the table but she made no movement towards the two. Nico herself bristled slightly but tried her best to be nonchalant, bracing herself from Nozomi's teasing lest her own candid photo showed up in the pile.

As she flipped to a new photo, the topmost one was suddenly snatched from her hands. "H-Hey! I haven't seen that one yet!" _What if it's hers-_

"Elicchi~ Elicchi looks so cute trying to put on a brave front hehe!" She waved the photo teasingly in front of Eli, a wide triumphant grin on her face.

At this, a furious blush appeared on Eli's face as she attempted to bury her face in her palms. "N-Nozomi, stop raking up the past! Halloween was more than a month ago!" Her voice was muffled as she cried out into her hands.

Nico chuckled at the spectacle across of her, _how did the rest of Muse even manage to convince Eli to go INTO the haunted house in the first place_?

Not being able to stand the two of her fellow third years any longer, Nico grabbed her belongings including the photo from Nozomi, commenting 'Get a room' drily before bursting out the clubroom door. And leaving the both of them to stare at the door, Eli's blush increasing by a tenfold.

* * *

><p><em>She can't be fearless, <em>was all there was on Eli's mind the whole of the following day, _there MUST be something she's afraid of._

Her sapphire eyes bore into Nozomi's back during class, as she tried to think of any single situation where her best friend was actually scared of something. If looks could kill, the furious concentration of Eli's gaze would have killed Nozomi a hundred times over by the time class ended.

This daydream continued even as the Muses finally had a replacement meeting on what their next performance would be like. Their loud chatter and occasional argument flew by Eli's ears and completely failed to bring her out of her thoughts. The Muses, on the assumption that Eli was thinking hard about their discussion topic, simply let her be. (Or did they forget she was even there…?)

Only when Nozomi excused herself to go to the washroom did she snap out of her train of thoughts. "Let's continue and update Nozomi chan about the details later-"

"Is Nozomi afraid of anything?" Eli suddenly interjected, releasing the giant boulder of a question that had been in her mind for ever.

Seven pairs of eyes snapped to her.

Conscious of the sudden attention, she repeated "Nozomi always seems fearless doesn't she? Is she afraid of anything?"

All the girls seemed to nod understandingly. They all seemed surprised by the out-of-the-blue question, save a certain redhead who looked unimpressed and a certain twin-tailed girl who smirked remembering the previous day's events.

"Are you going to try to scare her, Elichan?" Hanayo smiled shyly.

Eli replied with a determined nod.

"Then of course we'll help you!" Honoka cried out excitedly and nods of assent, murmurs of excitement and a 'whatever' went across the table.

The girls thought it was safer if they discussed the plan another day, so one by one despite their excitement, all fell silent. However, even when said girl returned to the clubroom, they'd all forgotten the ideas that they wanted to discuss during the meeting in the first place.

Operation Scare Nozomi had just begun.


	2. Chapter 1

"Honoka, what exactly are we here for?"

"That!" Honoka pointed to a shop amongst the row of small shops ahead.

The shop had curtains covering the door and behind the window display so one couldn't see the interior, save a few skeletons and ghouls hanging in the display. A large bold 'SCARY PROPS' was written on the sign hung at the door.

Half of Muse sweatdrops, "A prop shop?!"

"Why didn't we think of this Kayochin? Honoka always has the best ideas nya!" Rin leaped around Hanayo excitedly.

"Seriously a seedy prop shop? The decorations inside don't look realistic at all!" Nico grumbled as she stares at a comical ghoul hanging in the display. "Are you sure we aren't wasting our-"

Nico was cut short as Eli pulled her inside determinedly. The rest of Muse, save Nozomi followed. "Let's try anyway."

"Geez, we'll definitely waste our day here…" Maki frowned, mirroring Nico's exact sentiments.

* * *

><p>Once inside, a gaudy looking plastic devil flew at Eli's and Nico's faces. It didn't help that the shop was dimly lit either.<p>

Eli screamed, clinging onto Nico with a death grip.

"I thought you were all determined a second ago…" Nico sighed in exasperation.

"I didn't think it would be this d-dark!" Eli buried her face into Nico's shoulder. Behind them, Kotori patted her senior's back awkwardly.

"May I help you?" A shop attendant dressed as a vampire asked them. Clearly embarrassed by her friend's behavior, Nico asked for him to turn on the lights.

Kotori tried her best to ease the awkward tension. "Let's search for useful things around here then."

Everyone agreed and they split into pairs to thoroughly search the shop.

* * *

><p>"Eli-chan, do you have any clue about what Nozomi-chan may be scared of?" Hanayo inquired shyly.<p>

Racking her brains, Eli replied thoughtfully, "Well, all I know is she is afraid of losing her friends, but a tangible phobia… I'm not so sure."

Hanayo seemed somewhat disheartened. "I see. Let's keep looking then."

* * *

><p>Rin and Honoka bounded through the shop like easily excitable children, picking up little models of ghosts and demons and skulls and waved them about in the air.<p>

"Honoka-chan do you think Nozomi-chan will be scared of this nya?" Rin held up a ghost model for said girl to see.

"I don't know… It looks like that is meant to scare children right?" Honoka tilted her head to the side, sizing up the model.

They continued their adventure of digging for more scary looking props.

"Rin-chan, what are we looking for again?" Honoka mumbled half-heartedly as she inspected a cute decorative dinosaur."

* * *

><p>Maki and Nico finally found quiet after they separated from the group, too much quiet. Yet both of them stubbornly kept the silence, internally raging for the other to start conversation.<p>

"Found anything?" Nico finally blurted out, a little too harshly because of her internal conflict.

"Not yet. None of these props look scary enough!" Maki gushed, clearly surprised by Nico's outburst.

"It was definitely a terrible idea to come here in the first place. I'm sure the others are all goofing off now…"

For once, Maki seemed to agree as the corners of her lips turned up slightly. But the smile was gone as quickly as it appeared.

As they continued scanning the shelves, the previous silence began again, yet much less awkward than before.

* * *

><p>"Umi-chan, this looks pretty scary right?" Kotori tapped Umi's shoulder from behind her.<p>

Umi turned around and was faced with a scary looking Hannya head attached to Kotori's body. "Uwah Kotori you surprised me! That does look scary."

"Heehee' Kotori pulled the mask off her face. "Maybe we could give Nozomi a big surprise kind of scare!"

"Kotori-chan, it seems that the others are gathering back. Let's go too, shall we?"

To which Kotori replied with an enthusiastic nod.

* * *

><p>"Did anybody find anything or come up with any ideas?" Eli asked once everyone was present.<p>

Umi spoke up. "Kotori was thinking we could just give Nozomi a big surprise or shock."

"Oh, you mean like an ambush? That might work!"

Everyone seemed to agree, and Kotori blushed from the recognition.

"Alright first thing at school tomorrow we'll meet to discuss this okay?" A titter of excitement went across the group. In their excitement and chatter, they failed to hear the creak of the door to the shop opening.

"What are you guys doing here?" A familiar voice asked. Everyone jumped about a foot into the air.

"N-Nozomi, what are YOU doing here?" Eli asked nervously. Cue everyone's nervous laughter.

"I came to look for everyone! It was odd that no one was in the clubroom at all, then someone told me ya'll were visiting the shops around here so I came to find everyone. Heehee is there some sort of secret meeting going on right now?"

Nozomi's relieved smile was so bright that instantly everyone felt guilty to be involved in this scheme. "Why would y'all need to visit a scary décor shop anyway?"

Surprisingly, Nico was the one who spoke up, "W-We were trying to scare Eli! We, uhh we wanted to see if she'd be scared of these props like uhh, uhm a little kid!" Nico's face was ridiculously red from the exertion of making up an excuse.

"Oh" If Nozomi disbelieved her, she didn't indicate it. All seven members held their breath.

"Well alright, but have mercy on Elicchi won't you?" She winked at Nico. "I wanna come along next time! I wanna see Elicchi's scared face too!"

Nozomi didn't take any notice of the relieved looks on all of her friends' faces. Instead, she smiled as she held open the door for them. "Since we are all here, let's all walk home together."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hello and Merry (late) Christmas! I'm really sorry that I took so much time to update this but I've not been able to use my computer so I couldn't type this out. **

**My encyclopedia on ****petty pranks and scares**** is actually rather limited so I would be very grateful if I could get reviews on how you would want to scare Nozomi. If I do get any prompts I'll try my best to tie everything in to the story. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 2

Their ingenious plan of action was set into motion a few days after. 8 members of Muse gathered in the clubroom excitedly. However, this plan didn't prove to be very meticulous.

"So Honoka, what exactly am I supposed to say?" Maki twirled a lock of her hair nervously.

"All you have to do is ask her to come to the clubroom at 4pm!" Honoka grinned from ear to ear.

Maki huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "But how?! Won't she be suspicious? And why am I the one who has to do this?'

"Maki is definitely the most cool-headed one to pull this off." Umi smiled supportively and the rest gathered to cheer for her.

_Well that did it. _Maki threw her hands up in exasperation. "Fine! I'll do this, but not because I want to help!"

They were left staring expectantly at her back as she stormed out the door and into the corridor.

* * *

><p>Maki tried her best to calm her breathing and her red face, as she watched Nozomi's back from behind a corner.<p>

_Alright. Everyone is depending on me to do this. If I screw this up, I'll spoil our whole plot. Keep calm, Maki. _"Well, I never wanted to do this anyway." She muttered under her breath, immediately denying her thoughts.

_Now is my chance._ Maki sprang from her perch stealthily. "Nozomi, wait a bit!"

"Eh?" Nozomi stopped in her tracks, surprised by the one who was calling her. "What's wrong, Maki-chan?"

"Uh… The others want me to tell you to come to the clubroom at 4pm… Well, because we decided to start practice a little later today." Maki fidgeted slightly, sweating nervously.

"Oh I see. That is a little late though, what's the occasion?"

"Well, some of them are rushing an assignment and are uhm in class! Y-yes, in class! We want to begin practice together today so we decided to wait for them!" Maki blurted out agitatedly.

"Alright, I'll just go take a walk till' then. You haven't seen Elicchi have you?" Maki shook her head. "I'm going to go look for her then. No naughty business in my absence, you hear?" Nozomi took what she said as the truth, and winked as she teased Maki.

Maki gulped. "Y-yup!" She forced a smile and waved her senior off, wondering since when she appeared to be so naïve.

_If this was the amount of stress she got from lying she won't ever tell a lie again._

* * *

><p>With Nozomi out of the way, the rest of Muse worked feverishly to finish the set-up.<p>

"The rope needs to go up higher, Rin! And stop playing around with the webs, Honoka!" Eli chided.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Umi slumped against the table, muttering as she watched the chaos about her.

Kotori hears and pulled Umi to help her adjust the cloth over the lights. "Come on, Umi-chan! Let's just try and have fun today, okay? Help me, I can't reach!"

Umi pulled at the cloth such that a lovely eerie glow fell about the room, unlike the usual bright lights.

* * *

><p>Time passed them quickly, as they put up this cloth, adjusted another, pulled down the childish tinsel (It's not Christmas, guys!) and prepared their masks.<p>

"Harasho! We managed to put them all together!" Eli clapped her hands with relief and glee

All their proud/anticipating smiles were worn on their faces.

Cue the ghost hanging above the door, falling to the ground with a clatter.

"Aww, no! Nico Ni has to put it up again!" Nico whines, running for the main act of their jump scare.

"That wouldn't have happened if someone else set it up!" Maki grumbled.

"Then why don't you do it?" Maki and Nico ended up having a staring contest again.

"Hey, hey we still have about half an hour. That should be enough time for both of you to set that up again!" Hanayo interjected, "I can help too!"

The argument was temporarily paused as the three of them scrambled to pin up the miniature ghost back up at the door.

Suddenly, a voice speaks up about something none of them considered before. "But what if Nozomi-chan arrives early, nya? Isn't Nozomi-chan like a ninja?"

All of them stop in their chatter and activities and fell silent. Nico facepalms. _Oh dear._


	4. Chapter 3

In the stunned silence when the Muses realized the loophole in their plan, they could not do anything but stare horrified at each other.

"We're not done! Our jump scare is not checked yet, it's not foolproof!" Kotori shrieked.

"Harasho…" Eli crossed her arms and sunk her head, deep in thought.

Nico's eye twitched. _The way everyone was panicking right now, we'll probably waste the little time we have left._ She growled exasperatedly and yanked down the hanging ghoul that Maki was desperately trying to salvage.

"Wha-WHAT?! Nico-chan, we already don't have time for this!" Maki snapped at Nico incredulously because her work was destroyed.

"Listen everybody!" Nico ignored Maki and yelled for the room to quieten," We already don't have much time, let's stop fretting over the useless things. Screw this, let's just do it!" She stuffed the ornament in her hands into the cupboard.

"She's right, nya! In times of panic, we must work together to overcome all odds!" Rin proclaimed cheerfully.

The room was so deathly silent that they could almost hear a cricket chirping. _Or wait-was that Kotori?_ Everyone stared at Rin in surprise.

"Wow! That was very well said, Rin-chan!" Hanayo smiled encouragingly and clapped.

Maki whispered to Eli, "I never knew Rin could say something like that…" Eli in reply, gave a curt nod to the underclassman leaning towards her.

"Uhm, I read that in a novel and just wanted to try saying it nya! Ehehehe…" Rin began sheepishly, tugging cutely at the hem of her skirt.

* * *

><p>Umi began barking orders around the room, and pointed out the things they needed to do. "Eli, Rin, Nico and Kotori, you guys will be the jump scare focus. Me, Hanayo, Maki and Honoka will hide in the back to make things rattle and cause noises. Hurry and get ready, Nozomi will probably get here soon."<p>

"Yup!" They all chirruped in unison and went about to prepare their roles.

"Aww… No fair… Why can't I do the actual scaring with Kotori-chan and the others?" Honoka gripped Umi's sleeve, whining.

"That's because Honoka-chan will probably laugh halfway. This is safer!" Umi pointed out matter-of-factly.

Hanayo pulled Honoka to a corner to prepare, good-naturedly ignoring Honoka's protests and struggling.

The room sounded of scratches of chairs being dragged, the chatter of girls, and an occasional banging as one of the girls whacked into the walls amidst the squeezing. Until at last the crescendo shrank into a silence full of anticipation.

* * *

><p>It had been 10 minutes since the great panic and the clubroom was now drowning in silence. Except for the occasional whisper of course. The girls shifted in their places now and then uncomfortably impatient for the surprise to begin.<p>

"Kotori-chan, later we will put on the masks and jump out, nya?" Rin leaned forward excitedly.

Kotori smiled and nodded, before putting a finger to her lips. "Mhmm!"

And the rest of Muse continued to wait for their target to appear.

* * *

><p>Nozomi walked cheerfully towards the clubroom, completely oblivious of the storm that occurred there just minutes ago. <em>I wonder why Elicchi wasn't in the school gardens at all today…<em> She walked on deep in thought, subconsciously humming cutie panther.

Still wrapped in her thoughts, she opened the door to the clubroom.

"AIEE!" Four figures with the faces of demons jumped in her face and the meeting table shook violently. The sudden movement and loud screams from the figures shocked her roughly from her thoughts.

"Woah." Nozomi took an involuntary step back, but said nothing more. She stared at them, and for a couple of seconds no one knew what to say.

Just when the silence became unbearable, Nozomi laughed. " You surprised me! Wow, are you guys redecorating our clubroom? Why didn't you tell me, I have tons of ideas Elicchi would love!"

A shiver of uncertainty passed all the girls, again oblivious to Nozomi. _Does she really does not know that we are plotting something, or is she just playing along with us? _Seeing that their attempt failed, the scarers took off their masks indignantly.

"Alright, I'm going to the washroom for a bit, we'll start our practice when I get back okay?" Nozomi set down her school bag. For some reason, she paused to poke at a model of a witch, before smilingly heading out.

Once they assumed Nozomi was out of earshot, Nico slammed her hands onto the table and cried out incredulously, "She doesn't know?!"

All the girls fell silent, thinking,

This time Kotori broke the silence, "I almost feel sad for her… But that means we can try to scare her again right?"

Silently agreeing with the plan they nodded, smiles full of secrecy and excitement. Seems like Operation Scare Nozomi is still in action…

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I'm sorry for always updating so slowly but I've been swamped with school work and it kills my creative cells. (Excuses haha)**

**puchan87: Thanks for your prank idea I've taken note and I'll try adding it in a later chapter. The way I imagine it now in my head is really funny (to me). I'll try making it work! ^w^**


	5. Chapter 4

The initial rush of excitement had since died down, as nobody was able to come up with a good idea to terrify their 'dearest' miko, Nozomi. And the Muses quickly fell back into old patterns, lazing around in the room between practices, bored to tears.

Nico leaned back into her chair, half in a daydream. _Perhaps me and Eli are the only ones who want so bad to see Nozomi scared. I can't wait for the day I get my revenge for all her teasing and pranks._ Under the table, she played absently with a little plastic gum container.

A friend had given her the gum container a few days ago, claiming she happened to see Nico's favorite flavor in the shop. When she opened it later, a black blob of – _whatever that was_ – shot out onto her fingers, causing her to fall out of her chair in fright. (She discovered later it was a fake insect) Up until now she absolutely refused to open the box again.

_Well it was rough. _She flushed slightly. But since all the other Muses were completely absorbed in their reading/card reading/chatting/napping/staring at another member, no one paid her any heed at all.

Nico threw her head back and sighed, thinking of how she should pass the cheap prank to Nozomi without said girl suspecting anything.

She planned her dialogue, her escape route and excuses _– seriously that girl is unpredictable_ – and her eyes unexpectedly flicked up to the ceiling.

The 'décor' on the lights still hung there, along with all the other store-bought creepy 'decorations'. They all agreed to leave them there to advert suspicion. So they've been there ever since the previous week.

* * *

><p>"Maybe I could say that it's an early valentine's present?" Nico mumbled quietly, "Nah, who even gives gum for valentines?"<p>

The cogs groaned and turned in her head as she thought of a satisfactory plan. If she played her cards right, she would be able to at least give Nozomi a big shock.

She hid her determined smile as she strided over to where Nozomi sat.

"Nozomi, do you like gum? This is for you 'cause my friend gave me this and I uhm… I absolutely hate gum! These terrible stuff should be banned!" Nico proclaimed nonchalantly, trying to cover up her nervousness.

At this, Eli gave Nico a curious glance to which Nico replied with a subtle wink. She now had the attention of all the other Muses as they (tried to) appear engaged in their own activities.

"Ahh… Thank you! That's nice coming from you." Nozomi smiled gently and took the gum from Nico's hands.

Nozomi fumbled around with the container as she searched for the opening flap. Finally her fingers found hold and she yanked.

Nozomi squeaked as the black furry spider jumped out onto her thumb. She held out the box for a second as if to put as much distance between her and _that _thing, then brought it closer to inspect it amusedly.

_That was not the reaction I expected… Okay, Nozomi is not afraid of bugs, fine. What else is on our list?_

"So… I can keep this?" Nozomi smiled brightly, fiddling with the tiny bug. Nico replied with a careful nod, like how one would grant a little child's request.

* * *

><p>Eli rarely saw this part of Nozomi, the side which was not the big sister of Muse, neither was it the playful accomplice of Rin that annoyed the shit out of Umi in mini unit practice.<p>

It was the side of Nozomi she felt obliged to protect, the uncharacteristic oblivion, and her almost ridiculous child-like innocence.

Eli took the gum prank and smile innocently at Nozomi as she looked over the mechanics of the trick.

Nico took one look at Eli's lovesick face and realized Eli had completely broken her resolve to follow their plan.

_But no matter, no one else is gonna stop now._

The only important thing her attempt did was to hype up everyone even more. They all resolved to find Nozomi's weakness, all except Eli of course. _Ah well, we can definitely talk that girl around later anyway._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hello everyone thanks for reading! This idea was contributed by puchan87. I actually feel that the overall level of humor in the story is going down; it's been getting harder to just write just aimless comedy. I'm trying my best to return the mood to before though. I've pretty much worked out how the rest of the story would go, I'm planning to tackle several more common phobias but if y'all have any comments please review! Thanks for your support!**


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